It's the potential of H1N1 that makes it dangerous.
Because of the way viruses mutate, your seasonal flu may be slightly different than the one the year before. But with the similarities in structure potentially only 1 in 4 or 5 people are going to be infected by the seasonal flu. (that's infected, not show symptoms)
But with H1N1, that virus hasn't been seen by our bodies and there's no herd immunity, so when it moves through a population, it's practically a 1:1 infection rate. But it's not a "strong" virus at the moment, so most people may not even know they had it, and only a rare few with get quite ill from it.
But with its ability to spread much more effectively through a population than the seasonal flu, if there is a mutation that makes it stronger, or amplify faster, then the potential outcome can be significantly worse.
It's not something to panic over, but it is something to be aware of. The media is really shitty at presenting any useful information and just ends up splitting people on both sides of the issue.
Basically if you have family members that are immunologically compromised, or too young to receive vaccines you should probably get the shot for H1N1, whether you are for or against vaccines. That way you won't be bringing it home to them.
The shot does not contain the virus itself, but rather the protein shell that coats the virus. This is enough for the immune system to recognize and respond to it.
What do flu vaccine shots costs in the US anyway? Here they're free.
I never used to get them because I hadn't had the flu in 25 years, but now I get them just so I don't pass it along.